Friday, 21 September 2012

Veda Prada N_BLP028_AI(Snehal Shah)_September 2012

Appreciative
Inquiry is something which I was exposed to from the time I joined SOIL. We
were partnered with our fellow class mate and asked to inquire them
appreciatively.

Even
thought I was aware of what appreciative inquiry was, my understanding of this concept
was not completely clear. I always wondered whether it had any negative implications.

Snehal madam’s session on Appreciative Inquiry
on 19th of September 2012 was an eye opener and it cleared most of the
doubts which I had on appreciative enquiry. We had a whole day session on
appreciative inquiry with loads of activities, games and quizzes.

Initially
we started with an activity where we were supposed to pair up randomly with our
partners and inquire them based on the question which Snehal ma’am had
described to us before each activity.

I had
initially paired up with Sujatha for the question, ‘What is AI according to you?’
In response she told me that AI is mostly recognising the state of mind of
another person by empathising with their feelings & positively responding
and correlating to them.

My
partner for the second question, ‘Your experience of conducting AI with the alumni?’
was Kanika. And, her response for this question was that she initially faced
trouble in reaching out to her AI partner, Shantanu Srivatsava. But later when
she got his time and had the chance to interact with him, she found out that he
was a very cordial person who readily shared information with her.

My
partner for the third question, ‘What according to you is the negative aspect
of AI?’ was Neetika. And, according to Neetika, the negative aspect of AI was
that it lacked quantitative scalability and thus would not be effectively
applicable in corporate world where every outcome is measured against some
metrics.

My
partner for the fourth question, ‘What does Lord Ganesh & the festival Ganesh
chaturthi symbolise?’ was Ritika. And according to her, Lord Ganesh is a Hindu
god symbolising knowledge. And the festival of Ganesh chathurthi symbolises a
ten day procession which involves bringing home an idol of Lord Ganesh,
offering prayers and sweets to him & then at the end, immersing the statue
of the lord into a lake for welcoming him the next year.

After
all these activities, Snehal ma’am explained to us the actual meaning of AI and
how it is something more than just bringing out the positive aspects of our
partners. We further discussed about the Glad, Sad & Mad aspects involved with
the employees of a large scale organisation. Before attending the session we
were asked to take up a survey on happiness. And at the end of the survey each
of us were scored in section of three happiness levels based on our choices. I
was rated 3.18 in the section Pleasant life, 3.28 in Good life and 4.00 in
Meaningful life.

Snehal
ma’am explained to us the meaning of each level of happiness. Pleasant life
signifies the state where our material needs are fulfilled. Good life signifies
being engaged in activities which an individual is passionate about. Meaningful
life signifies a purposeful life which is led by values and morals. An
individual leading a meaningful life has higher dreams and purpose to help
others selflessly.

We
were divided into groups based on our scores for meaningful life and we were
asked to define meaningful life and we were also asked ‘What kind of images
came to our mind when we thought of meaningful life?’, followed by many other
questions. I was in the group which signified intermediary level of meaningful
life. And it was quite amazing to see how our answers coincided with the
personality traits which ma’am described for each group.

Later,
we were introduced to the five principles of happiness namely, Constructionist,
Principle of simultaneity, Poetic principle, Anticipatory principle and
Positive principle. We also learnt about the 4D model which involved Discovery,
Dream, Deliver and Design.

At the
end of the session we were given a case study ‘Will BBC become the world’s most
creative organisation?’ For this activity we were further divided into groups
of nine students. It was an amazing experience to work with my team mates under
time pressure.

Overall,
the session was very informative, interactive & interesting with fun filled
activities.